Confluence 2004 & Noreascon 2004

[msagara]

I just received email with my tentative schedule for Noreascon, and it looks good. I'll be rooming with andpuff while in Boston, and I'll be there for all four days of the convention (I usually only manage three), so I'm looking forward to it. It looks like I'm on a panel with papersky, so I'll get to meet her in person, which I'm looking forward to as well.

I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh at Confluence, and I had a wonderful time.

It's a smaller convention, and because of the size, I actually had time to spend with people; I also didn't spend so much time walking long halls between one function space and another, and everything was -- as one would expect from the concom -- excellently organized and very friendly. I met a number of interesting people, and got to listen to ohiblather, allisona and jodimuse in concert for the first time; they're Urban Tapestry, for those of you who don't follow filk or don't know them. It was one of the highlights of a convention that had many.

unclechristo played for an hour and a half, and he was fabulous. He was very, very funny, and his voice is really flexible -- he can sing in a number of different styles, and he can play several unusual instruments.

I met a couple of people from the yahoo list, which was fun; I spoke with Larry Smith's wife (I'm embarrased to say that I'm blanking on her name, although I talk to her at every convention I see her at :/). I got to speak with Ann Cecil & Jim Mann, but missed getting a chance to grovelling thank Laurie Mann for her great forebearance in Worldcon programming the year that I botched the on-line form rather badly <wry g>.

And I got to meet Christina Schulman in real life for the first time, which was great. She's funny, and she's very smart, which for me is the killer combination.

I also met Rand Bellavia of Ookla the Mok (I could be spelling that wrong), and I will repeat that the combination of funny and smart is a killer one, for me. Really liked him.

I owe trektone dinner. He very thoughtfully bought dinner for my husband and I before we realized the bill had arrived at the table. And I would, of course, like to treat him to dinner in exactly the same spirit when I see him at Worldcon in Boston. I'm missing people. I know I'm missing people.

But it was a well-run convention with few enough people that one could actually sit and talk at leisure to new people one happened to meet, which I really enjoyed. I'd recommend it to anyone, and I'm hoping that we can make it back there next year, when the GOH is Tamora Pierce.

Comments

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I may have conveniently forgotten to mention that ohiblather was in fine form. She had her camera. In her hands, it's an dangerous weapon. She was cheerful, in the way that evil nice people are often cheerful, and were it not for the presence of so many people who merit the attention of camera and other evil schemes (although I adored the Chris Conway surprise t-shirt, because, well, it wasn't -my- face on the shirt), it would have been a truly harrowing weekend.

As it was, because there -were- three other people she delights in cheerfully tormenting (actually, there may have been more, but I wasn't present for everything), I could usually just run to the head of the pack and leave the straggler behind for her <g>.

[ohiblather.livejournal.com]

I very nearly made a shirt with YOUR face, my dear Michelle, but sadly, I lacked the time to track down a good high-res photo. :-( Next year, perhaps...

>:-D

In any case, I'm posting photos from Confluence starting with today's Blathering, if anyone's interested. There is a lovely one of Michelle with her husband and trektone.

ConFluence

[zencuppa.livejournal.com]

Hi Michelle,

Great meeting you and your husband at ConFluence. Congratulations on finding three other people to hide behind for "Debbie Photo Ops."

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Will be looking forward to your worldcon report afterwards...

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

Now that I hear that you and Tanya will be there, I'm starting to regret not going to Noreascon.

Could it be Leah Zeldes Smith (Larry Smith's wife) that you were thinking of?

...Hania

Re: ConFluence

[msagara.livejournal.com]

No, no, that wasn't hiding from photo ops - that was hiding from general embarrasment <g>. I think that Thomas can now be made to blush just by hearing the phrase "Tom introduced me to filking!" Hee.

It was great to meet you as well!

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Ummm, no, I don't think that was the name. Which means I have the association wrong as well. Arg! I wish I was better at names, as it would mean less public embarrassment. Tanya and I have one panel together there. I'm looking forward to it, because the Boston people are always really, really organized.

But there certainly is a difference in feel between a large and small convention, which I hadn't really noticed before, possibly because the only small convention I go to is Ad Astra, where I know so very many people.

I think Tanya's the GOH at Conclave this year in October, and I'm wondering how to swing attending that. Do you, off hand, know which weekend it is?

Or alternately, andpuff, can you tell us?

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

Conclave is October 22-24. Hmmmm, I'll be in Cincinnati the weekend before. Maybe I'll stick around and go home through Lansing.

I much prefer smaller conventions. Even though I have been to about 10 worldcons and did enjoy the access to interesting events and people - I always found myself frustrated because I could never find anybody. People I knew were always dispersed in too many places and I always felt like I was missing something.

...Hania

[bobafet.livejournal.com]

The B/W shot of you and Thomas is really nice actually.. ;D

ConClave

[zencuppa.livejournal.com]

(See Andrea raise her hand)

I'll be at ConClave!! I'll be running a seminar on resume writing and doing a children's concert.

ConClave is in my hometown, Lansing, Michigan, so I'll have kidcare on Saturday and Sunday (stopping in Friday night). As such, I can (probably) suggest decent restaurants, etc. ..

Pleeeeease consider attending . . ..

The URL for ConClave is:
http://conclave.hamjudo.com/

Re: ConClave

[msagara.livejournal.com]

It's a bad weekend for me :/. I'm attending the World Fantasy Convention in Tempe Arizona, which is Halloween weekend, and I'm not sure that I'll be able to get to another convention when it's so close, date-wise :/.

I'm looking into it, though, because I'd love to see both you and andpuff's GOH stint.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yes, dinner at Worldcon would be nice as long as you are, too.

I really liked Debbie's Confluence pic of Chris, you and me.

Hope all was well when you returned home. When you get around to it, let me know if you thought the wine was acceptable, wonderful or sucked. The ACR's made it home - thanks again!

Larry Smith's wife (?) is, I believe, Sally Kobee.

I'd like to go back to ConClave someday. Or ConFusion, for that matter.

[msagara.livejournal.com]

I think there was some territorial discussion about dinner, in particular who is paying for it <wry g>.

Larry Smith's wife (?) is, I believe, Sally Kobee.

Thank you!! That was the name! Sally Kobee. I talked with her for almost an hour in the dealer's room, and it was all bookseller neep.

[trektone.livejournal.com]

Territorial? I don't think the subject ever came up prior to the presentation of the bill. Hee!

The discussion about Japanese-ness was very entertaining, don't you think?